The “Plantheon” j 187187 187
be identified with the Greek Demeter.^10 Both were mother goddesses, and their devotees
achieved transcendence through ecstatic rituals and dance.
There are also similarities between the myths of Demeter and Isis that suggest parallels,
if not a direct relationship, with Egyptian rituals. Isis was a mother goddess, often depicted
with her infant son Horus, and she was also closely associated with agriculture, especially the
annual flooding of the Nile River. According to tradition, it was Isis who taught the Egyptians
how to make linen from flax, and she was also known as “the Lady of bread, of beer, of green
fields.”^11 Under Ptolemy III, the rising of Isis’s star, “Sothis” (probably Sirius), was celebrated
with a festival marking “the new year, the summer solstice, and the beginning of the inunda-
tion.”^12 Herodotus equated her with Demeter, and, over the centuries, Isis was assimilated in
the Graeco- Roman pantheon and merged with both Demeter and Persephone.
The festival that was the most closely related to the Eleusinian Mysteries was the
Thesmophoria, which literally means “law- bearer.” The name “law- bearer” may refer to the
belief that Demeter brought the knowledge of planting crops to the wandering Greeks,
which caused them to settle down and institute laws. Alternatively, “law- bearer” might refer
to the rules of the ritual that Demeter was supposed to have taught to Greek women. The
Thesmophoria were celebrated by women throughout Greece in late October, at the time of
the olive harvest and the fall grain planting. The central ritual of the Thesmophoria was the
sacrifice of a pig. It was believed that mingling the flesh of the pig— an animal symbolizing
fertility— with grain, would guarantee an abundant harvest. Only married women partici-
pated in the Thesmophoria, emphasizing the connection of the ritual with reproductive
powers, and sexual abstinence was required to ensure that their sexual energy was focused
on the fertility of the crops.
Both the Eleusinian Mysteries and the Thesmophoria took as their main text the “Hymn
to Demeter,” probably written sometime after Homer in the seventh century bce. As out-
lined in Chapter 6, the hymn recounts the story of Demeter and her daughter, Kore (“The
Maiden” or “Virgin”) who became separated from each other when Hades abducted Kore
while she was picking a flower “wondrous and bright” and carried her down to the under-
world to become his bride. In the Homeric “Hymn to Demeter,” the “flower- faced maiden”
describes her abduction to her mother as follows:We were all in a beautiful meadow ...
playing and picking lovely flowers with our hands,
soft crocus mixed with irises and hyacinth,
rosebuds and lilies, a marvel to see, and the
narcissus that wide earth bore like a crocus.
As I joyously plucked it, the ground gaped from beneath,
and the mighty lord, Host- to- Many, rose from it
and carried me off beneath the earth in his golden chariot
much against my will.^13Disconsolate over the loss of her daughter, Demeter searches all over the world for
her in vain. She finally learns of her daughter’s fate from the goddess Hekate and the
sun- god Helios, who confess to her the role of the Olympian deities in Kore’s abduction.